The European Border and Coast Guard Agency Frontex should remove all doubts about its activities at external borders before the European Council in March, said Portugal’s Minister of the Interior, Eduardo Cabrita, on Thursday 4 February.
The Minister was pressed for questions on this subject by the elected members of the Committee on Civil Liberties, who questioned him more broadly on the work programme of the Portuguese Presidency of the EU Council.
Many elected representatives have, however, returned to the suspicions of migrant pushback of which Frontex is accused. “Frontex must absolutely comply with the rules”, said the Minister, and a new meeting of the Board of Directors in March will take stock of the different investigations underway, between those internal to the agency and those of Olaf.
Portugal also experienced a news item in March 2020, with a pushback incident leading to the death of a person arriving in the country. The Minister highlighted the speed of the investigation and the trial already underway and recalled his country’s humanist tradition, citing the example of António Guterres and other Portuguese people such as António Vitorino, who have distinguished themselves at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organisation for Migration. Portugal cannot fail to live up to this reputation and will do its utmost to ensure that Frontex is exemplary, the Minister assured.
As for the Presidency’s other priorities, the Minister of the Interior could only promise the MEPs to make as much progress as possible on the Asylum and Migration Pact and already on the less complex technical dossiers, such as the new asylum agency or the modifications to Eurodac, which heightens emotions less.
He also promised to defend compulsory solidarity, but whose rules must be defined and which can be translated in different ways. “We know that there are different positions, we have to understand them”, between the positions of the Mediterranean, Central European and other countries, he said. “The debate will have to be deepened as much as possible”.
As regards the new procedures for checking migrants at the external borders, the Minister also considered that “sufficient financial and human resources” were needed so that the deadlines “are realistic” (checks must be carried out over five days to direct people to the right procedures, an express procedure at the border must last 12 weeks maximum, Editor’s note) and that we do not end up with “situations like (the one) on the Greek islands”. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)